


Ribbon in the Wind

by MetaBlade



Category: Super Mario & Related Fandoms
Genre: Currently a oneshot but may be continued, F/M, Pining, dream scene
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:21:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23842933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MetaBlade/pseuds/MetaBlade
Summary: Like a ribbon caught in the breeze, unease slipped through her. Something wasn't right. There was something very strange about this place.
Relationships: Mario/Peach Toadstool
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	Ribbon in the Wind

**Author's Note:**

> Some... weird thing I wrote on a whim. Currently a oneshot and works fairly well as one, but I do plan to add more chapters once I decide where to go with this.

'How did we get up here?' Peach asked.

Mario, who was lying comfortably on his back beside her, simply gave her a warm smile before closing his eyes. Peach wanted to flop down beside him and enjoy this moment together, but something was nagging at the back of her mind, telling her that things weren't right.

'You said you wanted to go for a walk in the meadow,' he finally replied. 'So that's where we are.'

Peach tore her gaze from him and smiled in relief. He was right; all around them lay an endless expanse of bright-green grass, dotted with wildflowers and strewn with muddy bike tracks. She and Mario were sitting on top of a grassy hill. Off in the distance, a group of Toad children played, unsupervised by their parents. She thought that was odd - they looked much too young to be outside on their own. Almost as soon as this thought passed through her mind, she caught sight of several older Toads sitting in the shade of the trees a short distance from the children.

Like a ribbon caught in the breeze, unease slipped through her. Something still wasn't right. But she couldn't catch a hold of the ribbon, and moments later it was ripped away by the gathering wind that both existed and didn't.

She realised that she wasn't watching the Toads at all; rather, she had been staring intently at Mario... for so long, in fact, that he'd opened his eyes and was grinning at her. Peach flushed, raising a hand to her lips and coughing demurely. 'Oh, I'm so sorry! I was daydreaming.'

He gave her an odd look. The breeze gently ruffled his mustache, and she could not stop her mind wandering to ideas of leaning down and kissing him - just as an experiment, of course. She wanted to know if that mustache would feel soft or bristly against her face. Wasn't that a perfectly normal and rational thing to think about on a beautiful day in the park?

'I feel strange,' she confided in him. In truth, she'd been feeling strange from the moment she'd asked him 'how did we get up here'. She couldn't remember anything from before those words had passed her lips. _Amnesia?_ she wondered. _But why would I have amnesia?_ 'Mario, what were we doing before we sat down here?'

'We were walking in the woods, of course,' he replied at once. His gloved hand, which had been resting on his chest, lifted to make a vague gesture somewhere off to the right. Peach glanced in that direction and saw, sure enough, a pretty little pine forest at the edge of the meadow. The trees waved gently in the breeze. But she didn't recall seeing it there a minute ago, and just how does one miss an entire forest?

She gave a sigh, realising it was time to be honest with him. She couldn't remember a thing. 'Mario, I don't know why we're here,' she said.

He blinked, a faint whimsical smile still visible on his face. 'Why, we're on a date, of course,' he said a little shyly. 'You wanted me to come here with you.'

A date? That was nice, she supposed. 'But I don't know what we were doing before we came here.'

'You were in the castle, and then I came over to visit. We had tea and cake together, and then you asked me to accompany you to Mushroom Bridge Park for some fresh air.'

Peach liked the sound of this so much that she decided to simply accept it as the truth. Even though the entire recollection of them having tea together seemed to have evaporated from her subconsciousness.

'It's a lovely day, isn't it?' she said, tilting her face up and breathing deeply, drawing the sweet flower-scented air into her lungs.

'Every day is lovely when I'm with you,' Mario replied, his voice more quiet - more timid - than before. He almost sounded a little like his brother Luigi. The idea made her smile, and when she next turned to look at him, she couldn't help reaching down to ruffle his hair. He wasn't wearing his cap, though she could have sworn it had been on his head a second ago. Maybe it had blown away in the wind. The fact that it wasn't even very windy in the park didn't cross her mind.

_How would he respond,_ Peach wondered, _if I confessed my feelings for him?_ They already went on regular dates and spent so much time together, but she wasn't sure if he loved her - _actually_ loved her, the way she loved him. As a little girl, Peach had always dreamed of handsome fairytale princes arriving at her window to sweep her away on a lifetime of adventure.

Mario was about as far from a handsome prince as she could imagine. But that didn't mean he was worthless in her eyes. He had a big nose, and messy hair, and he was short and plump and had a silly accent, but he was strangely adorable. His big blue eyes shone like the ocean on a summer day, full of warmth and welcome. And she'd already commented on how much his fluffy mustache made her want to try kissing him.

Mario was a true prince to her; the one who'd risked his life countless times to rescue her from Bowser. But did he _love_ her - or did he merely see her as a close friend? Perhaps a thing to be protected, due to her status as the kingdom's ruler? Did he rescue her all those times out of a sense of chivalry and obligation, or something more meaningful?

However, a moment later, everything drained out of her mind. There was something very odd about this place. She couldn't seem to keep a hold on her own thoughts, and it was impossible to think about anything too deeply, lest it turn to smoke.

Mario pulled himself up into a sitting position, gazing at her; there was more seriousness in his eyes than she'd seen before.

'Princess Peach,' he said - all formal titles; she resisted the urge to sigh - 'what do you think of me? Do you... enjoy spending time with me?'

'But of course, Mario!' she exclaimed. 'Why on earth would I be here if I didn't? I love spending time with you. It's the highlight of my day.'

He frowned a little, worry making his eyebrows knit together. 'I'm just not sure...' he murmured.

'Not sure about what?' This conversation was getting stranger and stranger.

Mario shook his head. Taking a long, shaky breath, he looked Peach straight in the eyes and whispered something in a hoarse tone that immediately made her heartbeat accelerate, wild as a racing car in her chest. 'Peach... I think I might... be in love with you.'

Peach gasped, a hand flying to her mouth again as she fumbled to school her expression into one of delight rather than pure shock, lest he get the wrong impression. Even in the midst of heart-pounding amazement, she was all too aware of how delicate the moment was. Mario was an insecure person, as much as he tried to hide it from the world. She did not want to upset him.

Five desperate seconds later, she lowered her hand and gave him the biggest hug she could muster. 'Oh, Mario!' she cried. 'I'm so happy you told me that. Because... I love you, too...'

Something strange was happening. Mario wasn't hugging her back - in fact, his whole body had gone rigid in her arms. She'd expected him to be surprised, but surely not too surprised to respond? And the ground felt different, too. The soft grass under her knees had vanished, to be replaced by a generic hard surface, neither warm nor cool, which quickly disappeared as well to be replaced with... nothing.

They were falling.

Peach opened her eyes with a yelp as a sudden jolt hit her stomach. She sat bolt upright, and for one long, disorientating moment, she had no idea what was going on. Where was the ground? Why was it so dark? Hadn't they been sitting together in a beautiful meadow?

Then her eyes began to adjust to the darkness, and she recognised the shapes of furniture in her own bedroom. She was sitting in her big four-poster bed, gazing at nothing in particular.

A weight dropped into her guts. None of it had been real. Just another dream; another pointless dream of what could never happen. In reality, she and Mario had never been on a date, never been to a beautiful meadow, and certainly had never confessed love to each other. She loved him, but he had given no indication that he felt the same way.

Even though he _had_ saved her from Bowser, she knew he had only done it because they were friends and because he knew how important she was to the kingdom. He never even stuck around after saving her; he merely delivered her back to the castle and then, with a cheery wave and a smile, went home. It was hopeless. She was merely a friend to him, and he? He meant more than the stars to her.

With a stifled sob, the princess rolled over and pressed her face into her pillow, wishing she could turn off her imagination just for one night.


End file.
